AI HAZMAT Specialist for Supplemental Learning

It can be difficult to master all the concepts related to hazardous materials (HAZMAT) training independently, even while having access to the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (NPG). Classes cover general knowledge, but sometimes it would be better to ask a HAZMAT specialist what their course of action would be in specific scenarios. It takes years of experience to be able to think on your feet in an emergency situation, and personnel new to the field may not be confident or quick in their decision making in a time of crisis.

This project aims to create an artificial intelligence (AI) model to become an unparalleled HAZMAT specialist. This AI model will be trained extensively on the ERG, NPG, hazardous waste operations and emergency response lesson documentation, and many other trusted HAZMAT resources, and then further refined with direct information from HAZMAT industry veterans. Users will be able to ask HAZMAT questions and receive detailed responses to promote the safety of HAZMAT workers and protection of life and property. The AI model will supplement any HAZMAT training by providing an extra resource to ask questions and find accurate information on actions necessary regarding a hazardous materials emergency. Responses will be focused on the standards set forth by 29 CFR 1910.120.

Health and Safety Training CoPilot: An AI-Driven Pre-Training Generator Tool Benefiting Low-Literacy and Limited-English Workers

The Health and Safety Training CoPilot project addresses a critical gap in workplace safety training for low-literacy and limited-English proficiency workers, who often face significant barriers in understanding complex safety protocols and regulations. With approximately 32 million workers exposed to hazardous materials, the need for clear training is paramount to reduce workplace incidents and ensure compliance with safety standards. Traditional training methods frequently fail to meet the varied needs of this population, leading to increased risks and inadequate hazard awareness. This innovative project leverages advanced AI technologies to create a cloud-based platform that generates adaptive pre-training materials tailored to the unique needs of workers. By utilizing a curated database of trusted health and safety resources, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and NIOSH guidelines, the CoPilot will provide personalized content that enhances comprehension and retention. The integration of multilingual support and reading level algorithms will ensure that training materials are available to all workers, fostering a safer work environment. The project involves three specific aims: curating and preprocessing trusted sources, developing an adaptive learning engine for personalized content generation, and validating the system with stakeholder feedback. Through iterative testing and collaboration with public health experts, we will refine the CoPilot’s approach to effectively meet the training needs of varied worker populations.

Immersive Escape Room Gamification: Transportation HAZMAT Incident (iERG)

The transportation industry faces significant risks to health, safety, and property during the shipping, handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous materials. The U.S. transports approximately 1 million shipments of hazardous materials daily, accounting for about 12% of the country's total freight tonnage. If not handled properly, exposure to hazardous materials can cause harm to human health and the environment, resulting in respiratory issues, skin irritation, and even death. Strict protocols, adequate training, and proper safety gear are essential for minimizing risk when working with and around hazardous materials. Traditional training methods often fail to engage workers or adequately prepare them for real-world scenarios.

To address this critical need to improve workplace safety with innovative methods, we propose the development of: Interactive Escape Room Gamification: Transportation Incident (iERG), an awareness-level training program utilizing an immersive educational escape room formatted in both English and Spanish, bridging the language barrier and ensuring that more workers have access to vital safety information and training. iERG is a virtual escape room, scenario-based experience in which learners are challenged to locate clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks while racing against the clock to safely escape a HAZMAT situation. This unique approach combines the thrill of an escape room with rigorous HAZMAT training, creating an engaging and effective learning environment. This simulated escape room transforms a complex HAZMAT situation into a game-based learning training program. Game-based learning improves the quality of the educational process through motivational interaction (Cordova and Lepper, 1996), with educational escape rooms in particular showing positive learner outcomes, perceptions, and engagement (Eukel and Morrell, 2021).

iERG will be designed to simulate a realistic awareness-level HAZMAT situation, requiring users to apply their knowledge and skills to solve puzzles, make decisions, and successfully "escape" the HAZMAT scenario. The interactive nature of the escape room enhances retention and understanding of HAZMAT protocols, while also fostering teamwork and communication skills among participants. The prototype will include a detailed scenario of a HAZMAT incident in both English and Spanish, tailored to the specific needs of transportation and warehouse workers. For example, the prototype scenario contains a realistic HAZMAT situation with the arrival of a shipment at a warehouse facility, related puzzles, activities, clues, and tailored educational content that challenges the user’s knowledge and problem-solving abilities to safely escape the incident while racing against the countdown timer. We will collaborate with the Freight Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, transportation experts, and safety professionals to ensure the training is both accurate and thoughtfully designed to meet educational objectives and enhance the overall safety and preparedness of transportation workers when faced with a HAZMAT situation.

Interactive Treatments for HAZMAT Training with the PerSim Mixed Reality Patient Simulator

Although current patient simulators have demonstrated improved learning outcomes in medical training, there is a significant lack of realism. Thus, they do not effectively provoke a realistic emotional response in trainees. This significantly limits their educational value to the emergency medical service training agencies, as does - in the case of mannequins – their cost, reliance on electricity, and lack of portability. To address these significant limitations of the current medical patient simulators, the PI developed PerSim, a commercial patient simulator product using mixed reality (MR), which includes HAZMAT signs and symptoms. However, additional research and development is needed to effectively support HAZMAT treatments.

Since being released in 2017, there are over 100 institutions that have purchased PerSim and are using the system for emergency medicine and HAZMAT training. Based on interviews with our customers and individuals at emergency medicine training agencies, MR-based simulated HAZMAT treatments will address a critical need in HAZMAT education. PerSim can be used in person or remotely over the internet. Via the Microsoft HoloLens 2 MR display, the system projects high-resolution, realistic animations of a patient onto any surface a trainee chooses such as low-fidelity mannequin as a physical reference for haptic input during procedures. The instructor uses a handheld tablet as both a controller for the simulation and an automated assessment system to track trainee performance. The system utilizes another tablet to act as a defibrillator and a physiologic monitor to provide real-time vital sign and heart rhythm data. The system's control interfaces and registration algorithms are patented.

This project will develop and evaluate interactive, virtual autoinjectors and patches for HAZMAT treatments in PerSim. The team will work with medical artists and a HAZMAT educator to create realistic treatments and integrate them with the PerSim system. The team plans to develop autoinjector and patches textures and models based on National Fire Protection Association 472 Standard for Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials, specifically to treat poisonous gas inhalation, corrosive materials, and poisonous materials. Finally, the team will evaluate the usability and realism of the HAZMAT treatments with HAZMAT instructors and students.

SoftWorthy's Interactive Virtual Environment Laboratory to support Health and Safety Training of Emergency Responders Exposed to Extreme Ambient Temperatures (SWIVEL-HASTE)

Extreme weather events and heat waves impact human health and will continue to exacerbate existing environmental and health concerns. As the frequency and severity of such incidences increase, there is a need to provide adequate training for emergency responders. Virtual learning offers significant benefits while providing safety training to such workers. Specifically, a simulation-based framework that supports learning experiences through different pedagogical models (e.g., project-based and problem-based) can enhance knowledge retention and promote self-efficacy, with a focus on “learning while doing” rather than on “learning, then doing.”

The project aims to develop an innovative simulator that employs serious gaming techniques to introduce health and safety concepts associated with exposure to extreme ambient temperatures within the context of a real-time, virtual environment. The system would deliver a unique combination of thermoregulatory models, graphical human and environment representations, and interactive control, in conjunction with multimedia visualization techniques. The intuitive, accurate safety training tool would serve as an interface that facilitates creation of personalized scenarios for the real-time study of practical concepts associated with heat and cold stress in an enriched, virtual world.

The project aims to improve comprehension of actual, individual-focused health risks from working in hazardous thermal environments through an interactive, customizable simulator that adopts a practice-oriented framework for content delivery and enables a cognitively engaging approach to learning. The simulator will employ AI techniques for modular, adaptive instruction as well as real-time, dynamic assessment to support personalized education and training. The simulator will leverage open-source gaming technology, and the content will be aligned with National Health Education Standards to ensure that safety-related knowledge is easily available and interesting to trainees in various emergency response roles and associated workplace settings. The prototype – created by including potential stakeholders during development through a participatory design process that focuses on engagement aspects (such as immersion, control, challenge, purpose, and interest) – will adopt concepts from educational psychology to effectively deliver safety content. The user-based assessment of simulator effectiveness, based on P-III Framework, will also be conducted by utilizing validated evaluation instruments. Thus, this digital technology would offer a novel educational and training experience to develop a deeper understanding of health effects of exposure to extreme ambient temperatures via a gamified approach that is scalable, yet cost-effective. The platform will provide exciting and relevant health and safety content through customizable learning modules and a gaming interface and therefore support the safety training of emergency responders.

Team-Based Virtual HAZMAT Field Exercises - Phase II

Field exercises are pedagogically invaluable components of in-person 40-hour Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) courses vital to HAZMAT preparedness. Field exercises involve learners conducting team-based HAZMAT activities in the context of realistic scenarios with actual equipment and simulated hazards. However, technological challenges have impeded the inclusion of field exercises in online courses and in shorter in-person courses. This project builds upon a proof-of-concept system for virtual field exercises, called VirtEx, to empower HAZMAT instructors and training organizations to conduct field exercises in all their courses, regardless of modality (online or in-person), and thereby improve learner engagement and participation. Being web-based, VirtEx does not require users to have expensive hardware or install any software, and VirtEx is available to populations including participants in workforce development programs and members of remote communities.

The primary goals of this project are to develop a comprehensive library of virtual field exercises, expand the adoption of VirtEx beyond HAZWOPER refresher courses, improve administrative functionalities for multi-institutional use, and optimize the platform's performance for older computers and weaker internet connections. These goals are supported by empirical evidence from Phase I, where instructors reported increased pedagogical value and learner engagement using the VirtEx proof-of-concept. Our team will evaluate VirtEx by collaborating with HAZMAT training institutions that have various curricula and learner demographics. These collaborators include the Rutgers Center for Public Health Workforce Development (New Jersey), Universidad Ana G. Méndez Instituto de Educación Ambiental (Puerto Rico), University of Minnesota/Midwest Consortium for Hazardous Waste Worker Training, School of Labor and Employment Relations University of Illinois, Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (Maine), UCLA Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program, Green Door Initiative (Michigan), and the National Volunteer Fire Council. We anticipate that the participation of the HAZMAT training community in the design and evaluation of VirtEx will accelerate its adoption. The commitments from these institutions highlight the potential impact of VirtEx in advancing HAZMAT training. By achieving these aims, VirtEx will provide a cost-effective, scalable, and engaging training solution that supports the varied needs of HAZMAT instructors and learners, ultimately contributing to improved safety and preparedness in HAZMAT environments.